Theoktistos

Theoktistos or Theoctistus (Ancient Greek: Θεόκτιστος; died 20 November 855) was a leading Byzantine official during the second quarter of the 9th century and the de facto head of the regency for the underage emperor Michael III from 842 until his dismissal and murder in 855.

Noted for his administrative and political competence, Theoktistos played a major role in ending the Byzantine Iconoclasm, and fostered the ongoing renaissance in education within the Empire.

He is called a eunuch in Theophanes Continuatus and al-Tabari and is generally accepted as such by modern scholars, although an accusation by his rival Bardas of wanting to marry Empress Theodora or one of her daughters appears incompatible with this.

Theoktistos played a major role in the plot to assassinate Leo, and was rewarded by the new emperor, Michael II the Amorian (r. 822–829), with the rank of patrikios, and the confidential court post of chartoularios tou kanikleiou ("secretary of the ink-pot").

[2][3] Under Michael's son and successor, Theophilos (r. 829–842), he apparently continued to be a trusted advisor, as he rose to the rank of magistros, and was appointed logothetēs tou dromou, effectively the Empire's foreign minister.

A further mark of imperial confidence was Theophilos appointing Theoktistos as a member of the regency council for his two-year-old son Michael III shortly before his death in January 842, alongside the empress-dowager Theodora, and the magistros Manuel the Armenian.

[7][6] Despite his personal involvement in these military disasters, Theoktistos was able to use them to sideline his competitors: Bardas was blamed for the desertions that plagued the Byzantines at Mauropotamos and exiled from Constantinople, while the magistros Manuel was slandered and forced to retire.

With Niketiates dead, Theoktistos was now the undisputed head of the regency, a position described by the Byzantine chroniclers, like Symeon Logothetes and Georgios Monachos, as "paradynasteuon of the Augusta".

[11] Modica fell in 845, but although Constantinople used the relative quiet in the East to send reinforcements to the island, these were heavily defeated at Butera, where the Byzantines lost about 10,000 men.

[14] Over the next few years, the Muslims raided the Byzantine territories on the eastern half of the island unopposed, capturing several minor fortresses and securing ransom and prisoners from others.

[2] He also promoted the career of Constantine-Cyril, whom he first met c. 842, helping him to acquire a good education and later to find a post as chartophylax in the patriarchal library, after Constantine rejected an offer of becoming a provincial strategos.